


Until The End

by boredomsMuse



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/F, Good Severus Snape, Just lots of Angst, M/M, Severitus | Severus Snape is Harry Potter's Parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-10 05:12:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18931954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boredomsMuse/pseuds/boredomsMuse
Summary: I Open At The End.A rewrite of that scene with a Severitus spin.





	Until The End

**Author's Note:**

> So this started because I was too tired to continue writing STTG well and was like 'you know what I'll write something fluffy for Sev/Lily/James, oooh maybe a soulmate au'
> 
> And then two seconds later I was like REWRITE OF THE ANGST SCENE BUT WITH SEV THERE  
> and now we are here.
> 
> Only partly beta'd sorry its like 1am

Harry leaves Dumbledore's office in a daze, stepping over debris without really seeing any of it.  His mind is somewhere else. Not in the here and now, not in the memories he’s just left, but in a moment almost sixteen years ago.  It’s not a moment he remembers, he couldn’t possibly, but it’s one he knows.

His mind is stuck on the day that Petunia knocked on Severus’ door and handed him over.

So much of his life since that moment had been about his safety.  Keeping his father a secret, trying his hardest not to stand out, staying as far away from Voldemort as possible.  None of it had really worked out. His friends had found out about Severus, he’d somehow become both the youngest seeker and the youngest Triwizard Champion, and now he was meant to face his death at Voldemort’s own hands.

How different would things have been, Harry wonders, if Petunia had raised him after all?  Would it be easier to face his death? Would he be standing here at all?

“Harry!”  Hermione’s voice brought him back to the present and Harry turned to see her and Ron racing towards him.  But Hermione stopped short as she neared, studying his expression with a tight frown. Harry didn’t have the heart to fake a smile for her.

“Bloody hell Harry you scared us,” Ron says, wrapping him up in a tight hug.   

“We thought you’d gone to the forest,” Hermione explains. Harry’s silent, unable to answer and unable to hug Ron back.  The redhead pulls away, frowning at Harry as he catches on to what Hermione can already see.

“You can’t seriously be thinking about it?  Harry, you’ll die.” He frowns.

“I have to.”  Harry manages to find his voice, weak as it is.

“Have you gone bonkers?”  Ron exclaims. “He’s not going to keep his word mate.  We’ll find another way to stop them.”

“It’s not that.”  Harry shakes his head.  “That’s not why.”

“Then why Harry?”  Hermione asks, even though he thinks she already knows.  Ron looks between the two of them, frown only deepening. 

“There’s a reason we’re so connected, him and me.”  Harry mumbles. “Why I can see inside his head.”

“Don’t say it,” Ron says, shaking his head.  Hermione’s gone silent, hand raised over her mouth like she’s going to start crying.  He hopes not, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to keep together if she does.

“I don’t have to,” Harry says. “I think I’ve known for a while.  I think we all have.” Not just the three of them.  

_ “I’m sorry.” _  Severus had whispered, voice too wet and weak.   _ “I’m so sorry son.” _  His last words before Hermione had apparated him to the great hall.  He’s probably lying in their now, being healed by those that could heal and wracked with guilt.

“We’ll go with you,” Hermione says. “You don’t have to do this alone.”

“You aren’t doing this alone.”  Ron agrees.

“No.”  Harry refuses.  He might be walking to his death but he’s not about to lead them to theirs.  “You have to kill the snake, and then it’s just him. And you… you have to tell dad that it’s okay.  That it wasn’t his fault.” Because someone has to, and Harry won’t be here to do it.

“Harry…”  Hermione chokes on her next words and he doesn’t let her try again.

“Please.”  He says. “Please.”  He repeats, a little quieter, a little less put together.  This time Hermione launches herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding tight.  Seconds later Ron holds them both. Harry doesn’t know who’s sniffling and who’s shaking, maybe it’s all of them.

“Thank you.”  He breaths against someone’s neck.  “Thank you for being there for me.”

“I’d do it all over again,” Ron says. “Every little bit.  Well, except I wouldn’t be such a jerk to Hermione at first.”  Someone laughs a wet laugh, and then they part.

“Be safe.”  He tells them.

“We’ll miss you,” Hermione says. 

“We love you,” Ron adds.

“I love you guys too.”  Harry forces himself to walk away then, before he convinces himself not to go.  With the castle’s protections down he could apparate but he doesn’t. Slowly he makes his way through the rubble, avoiding the scattered students and adults as he does.  Once or twice he stops at a familiar face and thinks ‘ _ I should say goodbye _ ’ but he moves on before they see him.  He’s not sure he can take any more goodbyes.

When he finally steps outside the castle, he stops to just look at it.  It was only a few short years and a lifetime ago that Harry saw Hogwarts for the first time.  He’d been excited back then, and nervous, looking up at a mystic building so full of life. As he leaves the castle for the last time, he’s not sure how he feels.  Numb, maybe. Or maybe he’s in shock.

Hogwarts doesn’t look anything like it did that first time, now littered with rubble and the wreckage of battle.  It doesn’t feel like it did back then either. It’s too sombre, too quiet. Harry almost can’t believe it’s the same building.

Turning away, Harry tries to picture Hogwarts as he first saw it.  He tries to picture his friends as they were before all this - happy and carefree and alive.  They’re images he’ll need, he thinks, as he steps into the forest to face his destiny.

Only a few steps in, Harry stops and pulls the snitch out of his pocket.   _ I open at the close _ .  Of course, Dumbledore would leave him something for his last moments.  Suddenly enraged, Harry almost throws the stitch far into the forest where no one will ever find it.  He just barely stops himself.

Dumbledore might’ve been a manipulative bastard, but so far his gifts have been useful.  Taking a deep breath, Harry presses a kiss to the front of the snitch and waits.

A piece of the resurrection stone.

Why?  Harry wonders.  Did the old coot still have something to say?  There’s only one way to find out, Harry shuts his eyes and rolls the stone three times in the palm of his hands.

When he opens his eyes, the first face he sees is his mothers.  Lily smiles softly at him and Harry takes another step forward.

“Oh, sweetheart.”  She breaths and Harry can feel the tears in his eyes.  “Look at you.” 

“You’re here,” Harry says, voice wet.  He wants to reach out to grab her but he knows that’s not how ghosts work, and even if she looks more real than a ghost he doesn’t want to test that.

“We never left son.”  Harry looks to Lily’s left and sees James, smiling just as warmly with a hand on Lily’s shoulder.  Just like he’d seen in the Mirror of Erised so long ago. But then Harry looks further left and his legs almost buckle.  Severus Snape stands at James’ side, a hand entwined with his. His smile is sadder as he meets Harry’s eyes.

“Dad?”  Harry asks.  Surely this isn’t right.  Maybe it’s just a memory of Severus, he definitely looks younger.  But even as he thinks that Harry knows it’s not true. “But you’re not… you’re fine, aren’t you?  We got to you in time.”

“It’s alright Harry,” Severus assures. “There’s nothing anyone could have done.”  Harry looks to Lily’s right and finally lets out a sob. He had no doubts about Sirius’ and Remus’ deaths, but they hurt just as much to see now.

“Oh, Harry,” Lily says softly.  “It’s alright dear, you’ve been so brave.  Let it out love.” She says gently. 

“I’m sorry.”  He manages. “It’s my fault, you all died for me.”  

“There’s nothing to be sorry for.”  Sirius shakes his head. 

“We died standing up to a monster, no one is at fault but him,” Remus adds. 

“But your son-”  Harry tries to argue only to be cut off. 

“People will tell him stories of his parents, as we did for you,” Remus says. “And like you, he’ll understand someday.” Harry sniffles, wiping his eyes and forcing himself to get his tears under control.

“Does it hurt?”  He asks because he’s scared.  God, Severus had been so covered in bites and Sirius had faded away to nothing.  Is it selfless not to want it to hurt? To hope that it all simply fades away?

“Hardly a pinch,” James assures.

“Quicker than falling asleep,” Sirius adds.

“And he’ll want it to be quick,” Severus says. “He wants this over with just as much as the rest of us, no point dragging it out.”  Harry nods, though his fears have hardly faded. 

“Can you stay with me?”  He asks. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“Until the end,” James promises.

“And forever after,” Lily adds. 

“Will he be able to see you?”  Will he be able to hurt, is what Harry is really asking.  He can’t bear to bring them if they’ll be hurt, not after everything.

“No, we’ll be right here,” Sirius assures, gesturing to Harry’s heart.  “And he can’t reach what he doesn’t have.” Harry manages a wet smile, wiping his eyes once more.

“I’m ready, I think.”  He says, even though he’s not sure he’ll ever be ready.  

“We’re right there with you,” Remus says.

“You won’t be alone.”  Severus promises. The stone in Harry’s hand splits and they disappear all at once.  He thinks, maybe, that he hears them say something else but he can’t make it out. With one last attempt at drying his eyes, Harry walks deeper into the forest.  He holds the broken stone tight in his hand.

Until the end.


End file.
